PA Prisoners Promise Riots Unless They Get What They Want

Arab security prisoners in Israeli jails say they will stop drinking water unless Israel capitulates to their demands

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David Lev, 12/05/12 22:19

Prisoners in Ofer jail (archive)

Israel news photo: Flash 90

Terrorists and security prisoners being held in Israeli jails will riot unless their demands are met immediately, MK Jamal Zahalka threatened Saturday night. The MK spoke at a demonstration in Jaffa in support of security prisoners who are on a hunger strike demanding that Israel end the practice of administrative detention, and allow them more family visits.

The demonstration was one of dozens that took place in Israel and PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria.

Zahalka said that if Israel did not submit to the prisoners' demands, “the prisoners will soon begin to die, and we will have an intifada in the prisons and outside the prisons. If Israel does not meet their demands the strike will spread and there will be huge riots.”

A report by the Zman Emet news service said that some of the prisoners were now declining not just food, but water. Shuman Amin, one of the strike's leaders, earlier said that if the 1,600 striking prisoners did not get what they wanted, they would stop drinking water and taking vitamin pills, and refuse to continue negotiations.

Meanwhile, a report Saturday night said that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking that she intervene and demand that Israel accommodate the prisoners.

Abbas also reportedly discussed with Clinton the possibility of renewing talks with Israel. Abbas met on Saturday night with Yitzchak Molcho, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's envoy, to discuss Israel's response to the latest demands set forth by the PA. Those demands were set out in a letter Abbas sent to Netanyahu a month ago.